USA > Iowa > Clinton County > The history of Clinton County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns &c., biographical sketches of citizens > Part 37
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The absolute difference in temperature or average moisture between the different portions of the county are, contrary to general opinion, very slight ; but in localities sheltered from the northwest wind, the apparent cold is much less and heat considerably augmented. The meteorological disturbances known as tornadoes have been the worst enemy with which dwellers in Clinton County
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have had to contend. Not only have they done vast pecuniary injury, and caused an amount of personal suffering, immeasurable in money, but by exag- gerated reports of their terrors and frequency, both investments and immigrants have been to a certain extent frightened away from the State and county. Not only has this been the case but the tradition and recollection of the "rushing, mighty winds " of '44 and '60, fully discussed elsewhere, has always sufficed to throw the timid and nervous into a panic, and sometimes intimidate those usually brave enough, whenever a summer wind and thunder storm arises of unusually threatening appearance. The advance of scientific knowledge, though as yet unable to suggest any way of preventing or neutralizing such storms has, by increasing popular knowledge into their laws, somewhat shorn them of their pristine terrors. as positive knowledge always lessens the terrors of the vague and unknown. It is now pretty well established that any such visitation as that of 1860 is altogether exceptional, and that tornadoes, so far from being a peculiarity of Iowa, or even the plains of the Mississippi Valley, prevail at cer- tain seasons of the year in every State in the Union, and that it is a popular error to suppose there is any tendency for them to increase in frequency or violence. A good barometer will always give sufficient warning of any severe storm.
The cause of tornadoes is not definitely understood. but they are probably due to counter-currents of air, caused by unequal heating and rarefication, con- joined with the meeting of ærial currents flowing in the same direction, result- ing in the same spiral whirl or funnel as may be observed in similar currents of water. Possibly the science of the future will show their intimate correlation with electric conditions.
BOTANY.
The botany of Clinton County is rich in species both of exogens-plants having a true wood and bark, and increasing in size by the growth of outside layers, and endogens-plants having no true wood and bark, and growing from within. The cryptogamia are also quite numerous, the musci, filices and fungi being quite plenty. As a list of all the plants would occupy too much space we shall only enumerate the principal species. That the forest-trees are so comparatively insignificant in size and variety of species, except along the bluffs, and in certain timber belts by the margin of streams, is evidently due to the prevalence of prairie fires before the period of white occupancy began. . Judicious tree-planting has done much, and promises to do much more toward replenishing the following rather scanty catalogue of native trees :
The forest trees and shrubs embrace the cottonwood, yellow poplar, quaking asp; oak-white, black. yellow, chestnut ; black walnut ; coffee bean, gymno- cladus ; elms-ulmus Americana and ulmus fulca : willows, several species ; mulberry, morus rubus : box elder, negundo aceroides; soft maple, acer rubrus ; hard maple, acer saccharum : sycamore ; plane-tree, platanus occi- dentalis ; ash, black and blue; basswood. or linn tree ; honey-locust ; three- thorned acacia, gledithschia tricanthus ; sassafras, sassafras officinale ; plum ; crab-apple; wild cherry, cerasus serotinus ; witch-hazel ; dogwood, cornus ; shadberry : Juneberry, amalenchier canadensis ; thorn, crategus tomentosus and crategus crusgalli ; sumac-rhus glabra, rhus typhina, rhus radicans, climbing ; staff-tree ; false bitter-sweet-celastrus scandens, climbing; birch. hazel ; elder; button-bush, cephalanthus ; black alder; red cedar, juniperus Virginiana. A noticeable feature of this list is that the finest timber trees of the East are wanting here. Neither the tulip nor cucumber are present, and the linn is of less size. The oaks are more scrubby and less valuable. The hard maple is found in a few places only ; the beech, not at all.
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
Of the herbs and small shrubs the number is very great, many of them worthy of notice on account of the beauty of their foliage and flowers. From early spring, when the anemone nuttalliana appears upon the sandy hillsides, until the chill wind of winter browns the foliage with its icy breath, there is a constant succession of floral beauties. Several species of ranunculus enliven pastures and roadsides, and are known to all under the familiar. name of crow- foot or buttercups. Liverwort, hepatica triloba : spring beauty, claytonia ; cowslip, caltha palustris ; Dutchman's breeches, dicentria cucullaria and cana- densis : dentaria diphylla, or pepper root; cardamine rhomboidia : Arabis can- adensis, or wild cress ; barbarea vulgaris, or water-cress ; viola pedata ; violu cucullata ; dodecathcon media, or prairie points : prairie pink, or Mead's cow- slip ; thalictrum cornuti ; geranium maculatum, or crane's-bill : sanguinaria canadense, or bloodroot ; oralis violaceu, or purple sorrel; spirea ; phlox, macula- tum and several other species make up a constant succession of flowers from spring to midsummer, while the compositor through the spring are represented by but few species-dandelion, leontodon taravensis and troximon, with cirsium pumilam, a large, beautiful thistle. Lilies now begin to appear, and two species-L. superbum and L. Philadelphicum, are quite common. Resin-weed, silphium of three species ; sunflowers, helianthus, of six species : coreopsis, of four spe- cies ; rudebeckia, four species ; solidago, golden-rod, of six species ; vernonia fasiculata ; liatris, four specics ; aster, ten or twelve species ; cirsium thistle, four species ; lepachys ; echinacea purpurea, purple cone-flower ; parthenium ; heliopsis levis ; erigeron, three species ; eupatorium. boneset or thoroughwort, four species ; dysodia, dog-fennel ; cacalia ; Cynthia Virginiana and several other genera make a splendid display of composite flowers until frost. Lobelia, four species ; cardinalis, red cardinal-flower ; syphilitica, blue cardinal-flower ; leptostachys-slender lobelia, inflata, lobelia; campanula Americana; C. rotundifolium, in rocky ground ; lysimachia stricta ; L. longifolia ; gerardia auriculata ; the curious and beautiful castilleja coccinea-painted cup ; C. ses- sifolia ; dasystoma flava ; gerardia ; pentestemon grandiflorus ; mimulus ringens, monkey-flower : eryngium yuccacefolium ; petalostemon violaceum : dalea-alopecuroides ; lespedza capitata, bush clover ; cassia baptista, two species ; Lathem's wild pea, three species ; desmodium, four species ; podo- phyllum peltatum, may-apple, mandrake, are some of the most common ; sev- eral species of asclepidiaccc, or milkweeds, among them the lovely butterfly weed, with its large scarlet heads of flowers, is a very conspicuous object by roadsides and in fields ; the calystegia sepium, usually called " morning-glory," a great pest to the farmers from its creeping roots and spreading vines of rapid growth ; ipomca panduratus, man-root, "man of the earth," a splendid plant, with large, morning-glory-like flower, having a purple tube and white border, and large, fleshy root, very difficult to kill-is frequently met with and cannot fail to attract the attention of the lover of nature. The curious euphorbias are not generally striking in foliage or flower, but E. carollata is very common in dry fields and, from its large white umbellate heads, is a very conspicuous object. The remainder of the species common in the county are creeping plants, and cover plowed lands, if not frequently stirred, with a web of varigated green or red. Of course, a number of plants and grasses have been introduced that have become practically indigenous. The Canada thistle is sometimes seen, but, fortunately, has not become the pest that it has in some other portions of the country. The tame grasses have found a congenial home in the rich prairie soil, and afford the most luxuriant pasturage possible for all kinds of live stock. But space is lacking to speak of the wild and tame grasses in detail, and the
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filices, or ferns, very luxuriant and beautiful in shaded dells, the musci, or mosses, and liverworts must, for the same reason, be omitted.
ZOOLOGY.
The natural history of Clinton County deserves to be studied with more care and scientific accuracy than has yet been bestowed thereon. As far as known there now exists no complete collection of its animals, birds, reptiles, fishes and insects. This is to be regretted, as species once common are becom- ing extinct or scarce, and others not native here are appearing year by year and taking the place of those that are disappearing.
The principal mammalia found in the county by the early settlers were the gray wolf, the prairie wolf. lynx, wildcat, raccoon, skunk, mink, weasel, bea- ver, otter, muskrat, hare (rabbit), gray squirrel, fox squirrel, striped and gray, spermophile or ground squirrel, improperly termed gopher, chipmunk (probably an immigrant), mice and moles of several species. Rats were so early an importation by steamers that it would not be surprising to see some gray veteran, with the impudence of his race, appear and claim a share of the banquet at a pioncers' meeting. Since white men settled in the county, its prairies have been shaken by the tramp of the herds of bison or buffalo (bos Americanus) as they emigrated in search of pasturage. In 1839, the tide of these majestic animals for two days, just north of the county limits, obstructed the march of a United States convoy. Such prairies as those of Clinton County were then congenial transitory feeding-grounds, but not the proper lat- itudes for their breeding. The bear was also an occasional resident of the tim- ber thickets along rocky margins of streams, but within the county there is but little broken ground suited for the lair of Bruin. Elk and red deer were found at first very plentifully for many years after the country was settled, though they have long been extinct.
The birds of Clinton County are those of a large section of North America. Several species are only occasional visitors ; many others go southward dur- ing the winter, to return in early spring, while a small number remain here the year around. Among the birds of prey (raptores) the bald eagle (Halictus leucocephalus) holds the first place, and may still be seen perched in solitary state on lofty trees surmounting the river bluffs. The buzzard, sparrow-hawk, goshawk, snowy owl, barn-owl, screech-owl, butcher-bird or shrike, kingbird, kingfisher, bluejay, woodpecker, yellow-hammer, meadow- lark, snowbird, wren, redstart, chipping-bird, bluebird, brown- thresher, tom- tit, yellow-bird, Baltimore oriole, robin, peewee, Phœbe cheewink or ground- finch, cuckoo, plover, snipe, wild goose, several varieties of duck, crane, heron, gull, brant, swan, partridge, prairie-chicken or pinnated grouse, quail, turkey, nighthawk, whip-poor-will, barn-swallow, chimney-swallow, martin, dove, pigeon, crow, bittern or pump-thunder, blackbird, woodcock, rail and humming-bird are found at some seasons of the year within our borders. Some of them are now seldom seen, while others are constantly met with. The prac- tice once too common, but now, happily, abolished in Clinton County, of ruth- lessly shooting everything with feathers and wings, has tended to greatly diminish the number of birds, and several species, for this reason, have, in this region, verged upon extinction. That king of game-birds-the wild turkey-was abundant for many years after the county's settlement.
Reptiles are now neither very numerous nor formidable, though, when set- tled, several sections of the county were considerably infested by more or less dangerous specimens. Of the ophidians-the serpents-the yellow rattlesnake
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(crotalus horridus), and the prairie rattlesnake werc frequently encountered, and sometimes attained great size. The former found a most congenial habitat in the rocks along the line of bluffs, and there are traditions of dens of these hideous reptiles, similar to that described by Dr. O. W. Holmes in " Elsie Venner," inhabited by monsters of fabulous number and size. But, except where the ledges are inaccessible, the snake family have been practically exter- minated by their natural cnemy, the hog, whose method of destroying them is too well known to require description. Very large rattlesnakes have, how- ever. been quite recently killed by excursionists on the bluffs above Lyons, and their real or supposed presence is still, to the timid, a terror in those otherwise delightful dells that break through the bluff wall. The water-snake survives in the streams, though its range has been greatly narrowed by the draining of sloughs and lowering of lakes and ponds. The blow-snake-a kind of viper- the blue-racer, the ground-snake and garter-snake-the most common-com- prise the other species. They are, every year, decreasing in number, owing to the land of the county being so generally arable, thus depriving them of their lurking places. Of the turtle, there are four species, two of which attain considerable size. The newts, or Tritons, are represented by one or two species. The monstrous mennobranchus inhabits the still water of sloughs. Frogs are numerous in their usual aquatic liomes. The tree-toad (katydid) is often heard, if not seen, and the crawfish is a well-known denizen of the lowlands.
Fishes abound in all the streams of any size, ranging from the minnow to the gigantic buffalo and catfish. They and the striped and black bass, pout, sunfish, perch, pickerel, pike, sucker, sheepshead, spoonfish, sturgeon, eel, carp, Missouri sucker, gar and ring-perch, are the principal species. They are caught in great quantities, in both the Mississippi and the Wapsipinicon. Except as the sloughs along the river, in some places, are filled up by the silt carried into them from the prairies, and thereby depriving fish of their natural haunts in deep water, and causing them to be frozen out in severe winters, there seems to be no diminution of their numbers. The introduction of foreign varieties has been attended with doubtful success thus far, according to the tes- timony of the most reliable observers.
The insects include representatives of all the great families. The lepidop- tera (moths and butterflies) have many species, varying greatly in size, from the great cecropia moth, five inches across the wings, to the tiny tema, less than a half-inch in breadth. The neuroptera are common, dragon-flies of sev- eral kinds frequenting the streams. The corydalis frequent the same places, especially near the mouth of the Wapsie. Mosquitoes are in many places too numerous for comfort. The coleoptera are numerous, and many of them large and beautifully colored. The beetles embracing the troublesome and destruc- tive borers of many species belong to this class, as do the carrion or scavenger bugs. Many of the borers are remarkable for the length of their antenne, and for the strangeness and elegance of their forms. The beautiful and useful lady-bugs also belong to this division. The hemiptera, diptera and hymenop- tera are represented by the flies and bees, of which there are several genera and many species. The bumblebee, wasp, hornet, yellow-jacket, mason-wasp, mining-bee and hornet are well known. The arachnida (spiders) are found everywhere, many of them, as might be expected, where the wild flowers were so varied and brightly-tinted, being highly colored, and some of large size. The chintz-bug, potato bug and locust are not likely to be forgotten by the farmers of the county, even if left out of entomologists' catalogues.
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
The mollusca are represented by about forty species of unio, varying greatly in size, form, exterior surface of shell and internal structure. The viriparous, melania and planorbis are also easily found in most of the streams. Many of these shells are beautiful objects, and offer a fine field to the naturalist, being easily obtained. The land species, physu. helix, etc., are found in the woods and marshy lands.
It will be seen that the geology and natural history of this county offers an ample field for the amateur collector or the naturalist who seeks to lay a broad foundation for future investigations by first acquiring a thorough knowledge of the local fauna. It is far from creditable to the scientific spirit of the county, and especially to its high schools, that no better collections illus- trating local botany. geology, entomology or zoology exist within its borders. Teachers, especially the able principals of schools, could easily awaken an interest in the minds of their pupils that might not only result in the develop- ment of enthusiastic and promising naturalists. but in the formation of collec- tions that would both be of value in accurate teaching and objects of interest in the future. Moreover, knowledge derived from the study of nature has a pecuniary value not easily estimated. The man who has even a superficial geological knowledge will not spend time and money in digging in Devonian and Silurian strata for coal that might be in rocks above instead of below, working drift for silver or copper. or boring in Niagara limestone for petroleum, found only in its own proper shales. He who has a knowledge of botany is not liable to be tricked into buying worthless vegetable wonders. The locust, the potato-beetle, the many borers and enemies of grain all demonstrate the need of at least a passing acquaintance with insects and their habits, and teachers should lead in impressing on the minds of all the importance of such knowledge. The loss annually sustained by Iowa farmers by the ravages of insects can safely be placed above $10,000,000, of which Clinton County bears its full quota, a vast tax to be paid by every man, woman and child in the State, and most of it a tax levied by ignorance on those who despise scientific knowledge.
ETHNOLOGY AND ARCHEOLOGY.
When Europeans first penetrated the country that has since become the States of the Middle and Northwest, and drained by the Ohio and Upper Mis- sissippi and their tributaries, they found it either dense forests or wild prairie, presenting no evidence of ever having been cultivated. But here and there were hillocks of regular form, and mounds, some of them of great size, evidently of artificial construction, usually occupying commanding sites on high lands overlooking streams. Besides these elevations, there were walls of consid- erable extent, sometimes inclosing an area of 100 acres. Of these works, the Indians could give only vague and unsatisfactory accounts, and even acute research of archæologists has resulted but in theories and conjectures.
In Clinton County, there are scarcely any of these mounds now visible, though some have been plowed over and obliterated ; but as there are a great many just across the river, especially at Albany, it is altogether probable that the same Mound-Builders occupied both banks of the Mississippi, and therefore a brief study of the little that is known and the great deal that is conjectured, about these extinct people, is germane to the purposes of this history.
The articles found in these mounds are of considerable variety. The most complete collection in the world is in the Museum of the Davenport Academy of Sciences. It comprises stone, bone and copper spear-heads, arrow-heads, of endless variety and all degrees of finish, stone axes, hammers and celts, shaped
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and pierced fragments of stone, intended either as ornaments or charms, earthen- ware, coarse and unglazed, but usually ornamented with some simple design, curiously similar to those characteristic of the stone age in Europe, and stone pestles, hoes and scrapers. Pieces of native copper and other minerals, from such points as to indicate a rude commerce, have also been exhumed. It is probable that the local mounds, though not necessarily all of the same age within many decades, were built by the same people, and probably by the ancestors of the present Indians. That the Indians knew nothing of these ancient tumuli proves nothing. An Italian peasant is ignorant of the history of the mighty monuments of Rome. Moors could not now build an Alhambra, nor Egyptian fellahs the temples of Karnak; and, even if some Indian tribes in the West developed some skill in mechanic arts, it could be lost by war, or other causes of tribal degeneration, decay or extermination. Retrogression is easy, not only among red, but white men, as may be readily observed on any frontier. It is very possible that Indian tribes that had attained to a rude agricultural condi- tion, while undisturbed, by the frequent incursions of some more warlike tribe, as the Iroquois, who did extend their raids to the Mississippi Valley, might be compelled to revert to the hunting and fishing state. But in Iowa and Illinois buffalo and other large game were always so abundant, as far as can be inferred from the records of early explorers, that it is very dubious whether the Indians who dwelt in Clinton and adjacent counties ever attained even so advanced a civilization in regard to houses, agriculture and clothing as the Iroquois of the East, or even the Navajos of the Far Southwest. It is doubtful whether any of the mounds indicate any very great antiquity, though so far the really ancient mounds have furnished but very few implements, except those of stone or native copper; but this does not indicate the same age as such relics do in Europe, for, at the time of the Spanish invasion of Mexico (1519-21), stone and copper implements were in use among even the highly civilized Aztecs. The problem of the past in regard to this part of our continent is even more insoluble than that of the Etrurian cities in Italy, whose inscriptions are as yet unreadable even by the wisest philologists. Tablets covered with rough hieroglyphics and apparently intended as records have also been found in local mounds. But they do not indicate as high order of mind as did the neat bark-writing of later tribes.
The question arises, what was the design of these mounds ? While the large ones farther east were undoubtedly intended to serve as fortresses, those in this vicinity seem to be tombs, points for sentries' lookouts or places for religious exercises and sacrifices, often, there is reason to believe, of human beings. Some contain only bones and articles usually buried with the dead ; others contain nothing, at least that has survived decay.
The flint arrow-heads, spear-heads and knives vary greatly in workman- ship, some being finished with astonishing skill; others are dull and clumsy. The material varies from a semi-translucent horn stone to a dull chert. The forms are of very different shapes, from a spike-shaped flint two and one-half inches long by one-fourth of an inch thick and an inch wide to a stout ovate blade two inches long by one and one-fourth wide. It would be very easy to make out at least twenty types of these weapons. The
axes, hatchets and chisels are generally made of dolerite, a greenish, tough rock, or of grayish syenite, and in a few cases of a beautiful flesh-colored granite elegantly finished. Tools, probably used for skinning animals, seem to be in most cases made of dolerite, as it retained an edge longer than most other stones. Pieces of these are found in the drift gravels
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and were probably the sources of supply. The cherts came from the Niagara limestone; the copper, from the Lake Superior veins ; the obsidian, from Mexico ; pipestone, from Minnesota ; the mica, evidently used for ornaments, from North Carolina, and the best arrows from a certain flinty ridge in Central Ohio ; hence there must have been an infant traffic carried on by courier and canoe, the barbaric precursor of the steam caravans that now traverse the same regions.
The carthenware is of various colors, some a cream tint like fine flower- pots, and from this running through all shades to a dark brown. It is gener- ally rough and coarse in material and ornamented in straight lines of one or two series, though several specimens exhibit a higher degree of ornamentation. The beads or other personal ornaments or amulets are of copper, stone or bone. Wampum does not appear to have been used, as among Eastern Indians. Some copper may have been obtained from the drift, as several considerable pieces have been found within the county, evidently brought by glaciers from the north coast.
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